I was making typical, idle conversation with the driver about “how business was with him” and how it must be much better, that we are out of recession – he responded by saying, that “he knew where I was going with the conversation”

“Yes, things were much better but definitely not for everyone. The rich are getting richer, while others are struggling to survive”

He spoke compassionately about the homeless people that he passes every day (we passed many of them on our taxi ride) and mentioned the fundraising that the taxi drivers do – they won’t give them money but they will give them food and essential items.

I mentioned the little piece of work that we had done with Dublin Simon and added my observations – you just feel like you are putting a bandage on something, but actually achieving very little. However, that bandage is required – until the bigger issues are tackled successfully, plenty of bandages are needed.

We were in Dublin for the Ireland v South Africa rugby match – I’m not into rugby but did feel privileged to be able to watch the match in the magnificent Aviva Stadium.

Of course the tickets were expensive and we also bought the other extras including headsets and match programmes. There was a non-stop procession of people walking past us throughout the match with their trays full of beer. I did wonder if many of them were there to watch the game or just drink beer and have the craic!

During our stay we ate well and drank too much, taking our taxis from place to and we stayed in the fine Croke Park Hotel.

We are the lucky ones to be able to afford to do this.

I was asking the driver about “this” side of Dublin as it still seems to be very run down with a few spots here and there that seem a little better.

The driver pointed out the properties that a company called Key Collection had in this part of town. There were lots of individual properties with a distinctive black door that apparently they let out on short term lettings.

The driver expressed his surprise at the locations of these properties, but he explained that they will make much more money on these short term lettings rather than renting them on a permanent basis to families and other people who need them.

He reckons this is a real shame, but reasoned that money wins at the end of the day – we agreed that it was a good thing that at least someone was investing in these properties (probably acquired cheaply) and this would help to improve these parts of the city.

He also pointed out to us some of the drug areas in the city as we drove by, and he filled us in on which drug family controlled each.

I don’t think he was very happy with this “cosmopolitan Dublin” that he felt he didn’t know as well as he did before – “we can’t lose the friendliness that we were always renowned for”.

As he dropped us to the train station his conclusion was that greed was ultimately driving all of this inequality. Is it greed or is it something else?

I guess when we don’t know how to solve these bigger problems, when we don’t know how to get beyond the bandages, do we just concentrate on looking after ourselves?

As we roll into another year we inevitably start thinking about the things we have achieved and the things we want and wish for in the new year.

If I was to express my wishes for next year in one word I would choose the word “Caring“.

I’m not sure if it is just now that I feel there is a real deficit of caring in the world, if it is just what I am seeing and reading or whether it is a reflection of my age and if I am starting to think and observe things differently?

I am worried that there is not enough caring in the world and I feel that this year has plummeted with awful incidents in Nice, Berlin, Aleppo and some of the horribleness that we witnessed in the United States by the President Elect, Donald Trump in his campaign.

Lessons in how to win elections were absorbed by a new generation and “caring” isn’t quite the word that comes to mind when you reflect on what we saw being played out for months and months in the lead up to the awful result.

Closer to home our year ended in Ireland with the homeless coming together under the simple ‘Home Sweet Home‘ banner and they occupied an unused office building, Apollo House to put much needed roofs over heads and put a public spotlight on this big issue, which is getting worse and worse. The homeless need this as they can’t go on strike to get attention.

We heard the involvement of high profile Irish musicians including Glen Hansard and Hozier being sadly criticised by some in the media as being a stunt by them to raise their popularity!

What has happened with the way we think about things?

The courts moved in double quick time (they can when they want to) incredibly to process an injunction against the occupants.

The very sad “win” was that the homeless were allowed stay in the disused office building until January 11th – Merry Christmas!!

When living in a disused office block over Christmas is considered a win for those poor temporary residents we have arrived at a very poor state of affairs. Unfortunately this was a win for them – can you imagine?

My wish for the new year is that we start genuinely caring for each other, that we teach our children the importance of caring and let them witness it everyday, that we teach caring in our schools, that we make caring a priority in our workplaces, that caring becomes part of the values that companies live by and that we put caring for people in our communities, on our roads, in our cities and countries before any other criteria.

Let’s start caring.

Happy New Year and a big thank you to all the readers of my blog posts – see you next year!!